Oak Forest HS Students Explore French Culture Through the Senses

Oak Forest High School French students Gretchen Hedke, Madelin Spagnola, Alyssa Gilman and Carrie Fitzgibbons try escargot while dining at La Creperie in Chicago on the recent field trip to the Art Institute. The escargot, which was baked in a butter garlic sauce, elicited various reactions from the students. “It’s very earthy,” they all agreed.

The highlight of the tour was the Art Institute. A docent presented “French Art Through the Ages,” where she talked about the different styles of art and the characteristics. For example, in one portrait, a queen mother was portrayed as a royal with all of the trappings one would expect of royalty. In another, painted right around the time of the French Revolution, a royal of similar rank was painted in her regular clothes with very little jewelry and her baby nearby. The docent explained that because of the political situation, the artist painted her like this in order to engender sympathy for her so that the common man would not run her out of Paris which is what they were doing to the royalty at the time.

Other paintings that the class viewed was the famous painting “Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat. Students admired the famous painting which featured an experiment in color, with Seurat painting adjacent dots different colors with the idea that the eye saw them together and gave them their color story.

Students also viewed several Picasso paintings in the Contemporary Exhibit. Although Picasso was born and grew up in Spain, he painted in Paris.

Lastly, the students visited La Creperie, where they enjoyed a light lunch of chicken, ham, or spinach crepes, followed by chocolate, strawberry, or banana dessert crepes.

The French classes are taught by Oak Forest High School teacher Sue McKeigue.